On November 21 2008, Apple posted an updated support article regarding use of antivirus utilities for “Mac OS” which is getting widespread coverage from axe-grinders worldwide. Instead of quoting ignorance and/or ulterior motives disguised as “news,” here is Apple’s article verbatim along with the original article from June 2007 which proves that Apple’s position is nothing new:
Mac OS: Antivirus utilities
Last Modified: November 21, 2008
Article: HT2550
Old Article: 4454
Summary
Learn about antivirus utilities available for the Mac OS.
Products Affected
Consumer Software, Mac OS
Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult. Here are some available antivirus utilities:
Intego VirusBarrier X5, available from the Apple Online Store
License: commercial
Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 11 for Macintosh, available from the Apple Online Store
License: commercial
McAfee VirusScan for Mac
License: commercial
Important: Information about products not manufactured by Apple is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute Apple’s recommendation or endorsement. Please contact the vendor for additional information.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: The text of Apple’s “Old Article: 4454” verbatim:
Mac OS: Antivirus Utilities
Last Modified on: June 08, 2007
Article: 4454
This article describes the antivirus utilities that are available for the Mac OS.
Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one program to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult. Here are some of the available antivirus utilities:
Intego VirusBarrier X4
Publisher: Intego
License: commercial
Norton Anti-Virus for Macintosh (formerly SAM)
Publisher: Symantec
License: commercial
Virex
Publisher: McAfee
License: commercial
This article provides information about a non-Apple product. Apple, Inc. is not responsible for its content. Please contact the vendor for additional information.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Doug S.” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Contrary to The Mothership’s reiterated and updated encouragement, we’re keeping our processor cycles to ourselves. As evidenced by our ongoing poll — “Do you run antivirus app(s) on your Mac?” — we’re not alone, with 91% answering “no.” Currently, outside of the lab (in the wild), examples of Mac malware are few and far between, so this updated, year-and-a-half old article by Apple strikes us as a preemptive move to cover some legal bases, a “just in case” article designed for today’s litigious environment. Trojans (designed to fool the user into granting permission to run) and Website-based exploits that use applications, not Mac OS X itself, as the attack vectors are the issues of which Mac users should be most mindful
Regardless of what we’re doing with our Macs, for piece of mind, and especially for users who are risk averse and/or do not want or know how to clone drives, restore from Time Machine, and/or other rebuilding techniques, by all means, follow Apple’s advice and “use multiple antivirus utilities.” As always, everyone should backup routinely and do not visit or download files from untrusted Websites.
[UPDATED: The original article was published at 9:40am ET. Updated at 11:35am ET with text and link to Article 4454.]